Comments on: City Prepares for Law Allowing Bikes in Buildingshttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/
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By: Charliehttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-564731
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:46:23 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-564731The new law is a great idea. For years I have heard friends and customers tell me that fear of having their bike stolen and/or vandalized was their biggest obstacle to bike commuting. The 25% increase in bike commuting last year will be nothing compared to what is to come with the new regulations.
]]>By: Eric Bruinshttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-564237
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:10:35 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-564237#37: Thanks to minimum parking requirements, it’s exactly building owners that are required to care how you get to work. we currently pay for auto parking bundled in rent for housing and by lower wages from those employers who provide free or discounted parking to employees.

Making a serious mode shift to cycling saves EVERYONE money…particularly the building managers that would otherwise have to provide car parking at $70,000+ a space for an underground garage.

]]>By: Seanhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-564181
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:39:36 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-564181It helps to read the bill or a bit about it before sounding off on a blog. NYC’s bikes in buildings bill requires most commercial building owners to allow bikes in their buildings. It does not require them to provide parking. Parking needs to be arranged, on an individual basis, between employees and their employers, and employers have the right to say “no.” Although it is a nice thing for some bike commuters, this bill is not the monumental heaven or hell some are making it out to be.

I have some experience with bikes in buildings. I work in a large mid-town office building that already allows bikes inside. In my experience, I don’t see evidence that a few bikes wheeled down the hallway twice a day results in any more wear on the building than the pull-behind suitcases, baby strollers, hand trucks, and carts that roll the corridors without issue.

That being said, a little civility really helps the process. I take five seconds to check my tires are clean before entering the loading dock, and I am respectful of the dock workers and their schedules.

Along those lines, I think Robert’s comments above (#35) illustrate why moving around NYC is often so unpleasant. To paraphrase his sentiments: I do what I want when I want and let others accommodate for my behavior. I run red lights on my bike. I double park in bike lanes or elsewhere in my car.

It’s a pity that this “race to the bottom” ideology still lingers. It endangers people’s lives needlessly and encourages others to do the same. Aim higher, sir.

]]>By: Chrishttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-562547
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:35:15 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-562547Reading these comments is so depressing. How is it that all cyclists are grouped together – we’re ALL scofflaw jerks, we’re ALL “holier than thou”. Is this the way people you people talk about jews and blacks too? Or are you just biased against people who choose to ride a bike to work? This is nuts.
]]>By: blacklighthttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-562039
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:27:11 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-562039Hey, how about a law that requires all bike riders to pas a road test and be licensed, and that provides for on the spot confiscation of the bikes of those cyclists who don’t give a damn about the rule of the road?
]]>By: el bartohttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561731
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:42:33 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561731#37-

Completely correct…this is another well-intentioned law that will have disastrous results.

]]>By: Sam Katzhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561579
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:07:53 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561579Most of these posts have absolutely nothing to do with the article, which is about parking for bikes in buildings. If I was a building owner, I would fight this to the Supreme Court. Since when is a worker’s mode of transportation the responsibility of a building owner? While it’s nice that some buildings and businesses can be accommodating to bike riders, it’s absolutely absurd to think that a business owner, a building owner, or anyone else should be involved in an employee’s transportation issues. I don’t care if someone rides a bike, walks to work, or takes public transportation. Whose business is that? The buildings don’t need to find you a parking space, do they? What if I rode a horse to work: are they going to bring the beast up in the service elevator, too? This is another one of those well-meaning, but really ridiculous City Council ideas which will die on the vine — or in the courts. It’s just not practical, and the first person who is injured by someone’s bike blocking a walk way, a fire door, a stairwell or any other emergency exit will kill the law. And, rightly so. Good luck bike riders, but make sure your hunk of junk metal is not blocking my way!
]]>By: el bartohttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561541
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:05:15 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561541#28-

i dont own a hummer. you missed my tongue in cheek humor. i have a regular 4 cylinder car.

this is not amsterdam or other places where bicyclasists obey the rules of the road and accidents are few and far between.

Speaking for myself, I lost eighty pounds in the past 18 months. I started with aerobic walking and now religiously commute by bike 17 miles round trip through Brooklyn every day. The benefits are immeasurable.

Mental and physical heath better than at any time in the past 30 years. Saving $90+ per month on unlimited Metrocard. Being part of a youth-based counterculture as a 50 year old professional. Serving as inspiration to friends and family that it CAN be done. Coming through Prospect Park at 6:30 a.m. with the lake glass smooth and the swans and geese making it look like a European idyll. Sharing the efforts with like-minded fitness folks, some fat, some lean but all out there giving it a try. Learning more about all the neighborhoods than a hundred trips through in a car would teach.

Is it dangerous? As much as we choose to make it so. I run red lights. I do. I do it as cautiously and respectfully as possible and NEVR cause a right of way car to hit the brakes but it remains illegal. But the vast majority of us who get hit have ade some significant contrinution to the event. Yes cars and trucks block bike lanes. I double park all the time myself for my kids or wife to run into a store. Get over it. If you are riding appropriately, you wil have time to adjust for it. And there will always be clueless pedestrians and motorist opening door without looking. Again, we must ride as though we are invisible. Period.
This bill is a good thing. How could encouraging more physical fitness, less crowded trains and roads and less fuel consumption be a bad thing?

Take a look at the number of pedestrians (and cyclists) killed by motorized vehicles in this city, and the fact that few drivers are truly penalized.

Cyclists try not to come off as self-righteous. Really. That’s where the real danger to commuters lies. Most of us are just trying to get to and from work safely, just like you. I’ll readily admit that the law-breaking and sense of entitlement of some bikers is bad all around. I would even agree with you that some buildings — particularly older, narrow ones with small lobby areas — aren’t really set up for bicycle parking.

No one is asking that we be singled out for special treatment except in your accusations.

]]>By: Gregory A. Butlerhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561449
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:15:42 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561449The tone of self righteousness and the holier than thou attitude of many bicycle enthusiasts has always been a real turn off to me.

I don’t brag about using buses and subways to commute around the city – so why do you folks need to brag about your bike riding?

Not to mention the wanton obnoxiousness of bike riders who bring their bikes on the subway! If you’re not strong enough to bike all the way to work, leave it home and ride the train like the rest of us! You don’t see the car commuters driving their cars onto the subway!

As for this bringing bikes into the office thing – look, offices are for people, not for vehicles, and freight elevators are designed to bring deliveries, building material, packages, delivery people, construction workers and janitors into a building. They are NOT designed for the private vehicles of the white collar workers, who have no business on the loading dock of a commercial building in the first place.

If you want to bike to work, do what the Dominos guys and the Chinese delivery men do – chain your bike to a lamppost!

They will stop riding on the sidewalk, and encourage, no insist that others do the same?

They will stop at stop lights, and stop signs?

They will follow all traffic laws, including lights, bells, reflectors, yield the right of way, and ride in the direction of the street?

Bet not!

]]>By: Peter Engelhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561391
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:06:58 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561391I’ve been commuting in NYC by bicycle for many of the last 20 years. Except for a couple of days in August, no one really needs shower facilities. That’s only for those traveling much more than 10 miles each way, or trying to do it in Lance-like time.

While the new law is a good thing overall, I think I’ll continue parking my 15-year-old, scratched-up commuter bike on the DOT-supplied street rack. It takes less time to get to, keeps my door-to-door time reasonable, and I won’t have to deal with building personnel who don’t have the time or inclination to help us out due to a law forcing more duties on them.

]]>By: Danielhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561349
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:51:02 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561349Most New Yorkers do not own cars yet we allocate so much of our public space and money to these polluting forms of transportation. Well done on implementing this forward thinking legislation.
]]>By: Aliciahttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/comment-page-1/#comment-561297
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:51:33 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/city-prepares-for-law-allowing-bikes-in-buildings/#comment-561297“I was watching bicycle riders, ride down a midtown street and thought you have to be either nuts or so out of touch with reality that you don’t comprehend the danger.”

It’s actually the courage to do what you know is good for your body, the environment, your wallet, and your fellow citizens, in spite of the hostile nature of the poorly designed streets. Were there specific infrastructure for this free and efficient method of transportation, many more people would choose to do the same. I wish I didn’t have to ride in fear, but it won’t stop me from riding.

“Spending gov’t money for this is crazy.”

Spending government money on expanding infrastructure for a transportation mode that pollutes and uses inordinate amounts of natural resources per capita is what’s crazy. Men, women and children around the world are dying as a result of global warming, resource wars, and car accidents: I see no better expenditure of money than preventing those deaths.

“Lets figure out healthcare,”

Countries where biking-as-transport is common have shown huge decreases in national healthcare costs as a direct result of the improved health of the populace. The fewer carcinogens we inhale from a car’s tailpipe, the less money we need to spend to be healthy. Many externalized costs of automobile subsidies are ignored in these debates.

“lower property taxes ”

How about we start charging people for the free real estate where they store their cars?

“reduce the cost of living in this city,”

My transportation costs yearly average about $100 in new tubes, yours?

“before we start constructing parking garages for bicycles.”

Ok, I’ll concede this point; giving us contiguous space to safely conduct our human-powered vehicles on city streets is good enough for me.